[s-cars] Confession: Cheap tires on my S4

[djdawson2 at aol.com]

I've run the Sumitomo HTR-ZII's on 2 cars... never liked them from either a handling or wear perspective.  I've also mounted/balanced MANY sets of those same tires for other Audi folks... one set just last weekend.  They were the same as all the rest of the Sumitomos I've looked at... irregular shoulder wear (could be the car) and an odd tendency to wear in the center leaving 2 sort of high "humps" on either side of the centerline.

I've never liked any Falken tire I've ever tried.

I have one set of Kumhos that aren't bad, but are somewhat disappointing in the handling department.

My most recent experiment in the cheap tire category is the Generals.  I tried them first on my A4.  Great results (with 18s).  Good ride, responsive handling, great in heavy water, and no tendency to tramline.  In the past, I've always been let down in at least one of those areas when buying tires in the "cheap" category.

After 10k happy miles on those, I decided to try them on my 200 20v that serves as the airport commuter... spending most of its life in airport parking garages.  I only have 500 miles on that set, but so far my impressions are them same for those... way beyond what I expected out of a low cost performance tire.  And they have a treadwear index in the high 300s.  It'll be interesting to see how long they go.

FWIW,
Dave


-----Original Message-----
From: Taka Mizutani <t44tqtro at gmail.com>
To: S-car list <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 2:00 pm
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Confession: Cheap tires on my S4



I don't think FK-451s compare to Kumho MX- all the Falken ads with those
ires have them on European luxury sedans. The MX is more of a sportscar
ire.
Azenis RT series tires are the ones to compare to the MX. The RT-615 is the
est bang for your buck in a streetable, getting close to R compound tire. I
hink I'll get close to 20k out of my set, but I wouldn't recommend them for
 big Audi.
If Falken is related to Sumitomo, then they're all under the same corporate
mbrella as Dunlop.
I'd go with Sumitomo HTR-ZII, Falken FK-452 or Hankook Ventus Sport for a
heap high-performance summer tire for the Audi.
Kumho Ecsta 712s are a world of difference worse and out of production, I
hink.
Taka

n 6/7/07, LL - NY <larrycleung at gmail.com> wrote:

 For what it's worth, the FK451's were touted to be Falken's challenger
 (besides
 the Azenis RT615) to the Kumho MX, which at the time I bought the Falkens,
 unobtainium for months. Well, as grippy as they are, their sidewalls are
 too
 soft
 to be considered an MX replacement, but they are worlds better than the
 Kumho
 Ecsta 712's I had on my 200Q. Still, all in all, ALL of those tires are
 pretty darned
 good, and all could be had for less than $1C. Still what I'd call cheap.

 LL - NY

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